Milton's References to Plato and Socrates

7/23/2019 Milton's References to Plato and Socrates

1/16

University of North Carolina Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/4172643.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

University of North Carolina Pressis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Studies in Philology.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uncpresshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4172643?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4172643?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uncpress


2/16

MILTON'S REFERENCES

TO PLATO AND

SOCRATES

By

IRENE

SAMUEL

The importance of Platonism to Milton's

growth

in

philosophi-

cal and

poetic power

has needed *further

study.

While the

sub-

ject

hitherto has not

been

neglected,

a

glance

at

the

appended

table of

references made

by

Milton

to Plato

and

Socrates

will

show how far even clear signs of his indebtedness have escaped

scholarly

notice. From these references

I have ventured to draw

some

conclusions

on the

importance

of the debt. But

first

I wish

to

thank

Dr.

Herbert

Agar

for

permission

to build

upon

the useful

discoveries

recorded in

his

book on

Milton and

Plato.

My

method

of

distinguishing

new

matter

in

the

table

is intended to acknowl.

edge fully

the debt that

I

with other scholars owe to his initial

research. The

Index to the Columbia edition

of

The

Works

of

John

Milton

appeared

after I had

compiled my

own

list of

references, but has proved a helpful check.

References to Socrates and Plato

from the

pen

of John

Milton

are,

of course,

hardly

matter for

surprise.

An

Englishman

of the

seventeenth century, trained at St.

Paul's

and

Cambridge,

at

home

in

the academies of Italy, in

correspondence with the

learned men

of his

time,

who

had

not

found occasion

to

mention Plato

and

Socrates would

astonish us. And

yet

time and

place will

not wholly

account for these references

by one who

so

constantly and reso-

lutely as Milton transcended

the mental

barriers of era and local-

ity. Again,

the mere frequency of

allusion might seem

enough to

explain why such an astute reader as Coleridge called Plato ' Mil-

ton's

darling.'

But

Coleridge's

complaint,

that

commentators have

heeded too little

Plato's influence on Milton,'

rightly suggests that

these

references

are no

less

important than

numerous. Why labor

the

point?

As

early

as his

student

years

at

Cambridge Milton was

calling Socrates

the 'wisest

of

the Greeks

2 and Plato

'divine.'

3

As late as Paradise

Regained Socrates

was still for

Milton 'the

S.

T.

Coleridge,

Letter

to W.

Sotheby,

dated

September 10,

1802, in

Letters, ed.

by Ernest

Hartley

Coleridge

(Boston, 1895),

I,

406.

' See

Eleg.

IV,

23-4.

a

Prolus.

VII.

See the

Coluimbia

edition of

The Works

of

John

Milton

(hereafter

referred to as C.

E.).

XII.

262-4.

50


3/16

Irene Samuel 51

wisest

of them

[i.

e., the

pagans]

all' and

Plato 'the

next

'-in

wisdom, we

may guess,

as

in

time.

But

since

such

epithets

may

be

conventional,

and were

so in

Milton's

age, as often in our

own,

and often

conventional

with

those

who know little

more

of Plato than that he may,be

called

divine and

of

Socrates that he

was

called the

wisest of

men, they

need

suggest

no

unusual

Platonism in

Milton's

thought. Indeed

Milton's

early

references

to both

Socrates and

Plato are

of this

kind;

common-

places of the schools and society, they indicate learning, but rather

learning about

than

learning

from

Plato.

Milton

surely

read in

the

Dialogues at

college,

if

not

earlier,

used

materials from

them,

and knew

something

of

Platonic

'theories.' But he

read,

and

used,

and

knlew, we

may

surmise,

in

the

way of

a

highly gifted

collegian

dealing

with an

ancient

philosopher.

Plato was as

remote as

high.

The

early

references, both in

the

Cambridge

and

even

early

in

the

Horton

period, might

come from

any one

of similar

training.

They

are

vague;

4

they reveal

no

special

insight into

Plato's

thought; they have no connection with the writer's own serious

belief.

The like

may be

said even

of

the verses De

Idea

Platonica,

in

which

Aristotle's

denials are

tossed

about on

Milton's

frolicsome

Pegasus.5

So

too with 11

Penseroso, where

Plato is to be

unsphered

for

such work

as had

better

have been

left to

Hermes

Trismegis-

tus.6

These familiar

uses of

Pla.to show

interest and

learning,

even

affection, but

hardly

deep

understanding.

They

reflect

the

contemporary zest for

Platonism, but reveal

little of

AMilton.

The

allusions of

his

middle

years

are

decidedly

different.

Whether

inspired

by

the

Platonizing talk

in

the

Italian

academies

he had visited or pressed by the needs of political controversy, or

4

Note the

impossibility

of

relating

any

of

them

to a

particular

writing

of

Plato,

or

indeed

with

certainty

to

any

source

at

all.

E.

H.

Visiak

has

raised

the

question

'how

far

Mi'lton

understood

Plato's

conception when

he wrote

this

academic

exercise;

whether

he

had

.

.

.as yet

come

into

the enthusiasm

for

Plato's

philosophy

which

he

afterwards

expressed.'

See

Milton's Lament

for

Damon

and

his

other

Latin Poems

(London,

1935), p.

66.

And

another

commentator,

Walter

Mac

Kellar,

while

accepting

the

poem

as

Platonic,

feels

the

need

to

suggest

for

it

sources

other

than

Plato

and Aristotle,

See

The

Latin

Poems

of

John

Milton

(New

Haven,

1930), p.

51.

6

In 'A Note on Il Penseroso,' MLN., XXXIII (1918), 184-5, E. C.

Baldwin observed

that the

whole

passage

bears far

more

resemblance

to

the

Hermetica

than

to

any

writing

of

Plato.


4/16

52

Miltones

References to Plato

and Socrates

whenever

and however

moved, Milton

apparently was

a

careful

student

of

the

Dialogues during the

years

of

England's

civil war.

In his

various treatises,

allusions and

citations are

specific

and

detailed, so much

so that a scholar must still

read

Plato's words

as

carefully as

Milton did

in

order to find the exact

source.7 But

even more

striking

than

this

exactness is the

manifest

wish

to

grasp

Plato's thought

and hold it

steadily in view.

The reference,

while

imbedded in

argument,

often

has

a

bit of

commentary

attached;

that is, Milton comments not merely on its relevance to the argu-

ment,

but on the

reasonableness of the

position taken

by

Plato.8

Most

important of

all,

these

citations of

Plato's

authority show

not

understanding

alone, but an

incorporation of

the thought

into Mil-

ton's own doctrine:

they

do not

simply

add

the

prop

of

a

great

name

to the

argument,

they guide

it.

And because

Milton

was

thus steadily

assimilatiing

the thoughts

of the

Dialogues

and

Epistles,

or

assimilating

his own

thoughts

to

them,

with his latest

allusions

we once more have

difficulty

in

naming the precise

origin.9

Here

again,

as in the

early references,

is vagueness, but with a difference. Now

particularity is absent

because

absorbed

in

general

understanding. Thus the

growing

infrequency

of

allusions to Plato and Socrates in

Milton's later

work

means not a

waning familiarity, but a

fully

accomplished

assimilation,

showing not

less interest

in Plato's

writings,

but a

more

perfect

appropriation

of

their

content.

7

For

example, the

passage

in

the

letter to

Buommattei,

quoted

below

on

p.

-,

is

surely

an

allusion

to

Laws, VII,

797-8;

but

Agar

writes,

'If

Milton had

any particular

passages

in

mind, they

were

perhaps

the eighth

and ninth Books of

the

Republic.'

See Herbert

Agar,

Milton

and

Plato

(Princeton,

1928),

p.

69.

Again,

Ronald

B.

Levinson

has

demonstrated

that

a

reference

in

Chzurch-Gov.

(C.

E.,

III, 264)

is to

Plato's

Sophist

230,

not,

as

Agar

says,

to

Gorgias

524-5. Cf.

Agar, p.

61,

with

Levinson,

'Milton

and

Plato,'

MLN.,

XLVI

(1931), 85-91.

One further

illustration: in

his

first

Defensio

(C.

E., VII,

158)

Milton

paraphrases

Republic, V,

463;

Agar

gives

as

the

source

Laws,

IV,

715.

8

See,

for

example,

the Preface to

Church-Gov.

(C.

E., III,

181-2)

and

the discussion below on

pp.

-.

Similarly

Milton

comments

on

Plato'a

words in a

number

of

passages,

among

them:

Church-Gov.

(C. E.,

III,

264);

D. D. D.

(C.

E.,

III,

458-9);

Tetrach.

(C.

E., IV,

655); Def.

(C.

E.,

VII,

348-50).

9 In the Logic Milton had, of course, particular reasons for taking from

Downham,

or himself

supplying,

the

name of

the

Dialogue

referred

to.

See

the

table

of

references.


5/16

Irene

Samuel

53

So

much we

may learn

by

tabulating

these

references and

their

sources,

explicitly given

or

implied.

And

Milton's

use of

Platon-

ism, as we

hope to show in

further

papers,

confirms

this view.

Where the

early

poems

are

dotted with native

stars

and

love-inspir-

ing

beauties and spheric

harmonies, all

in

the manner

of the

Platonizing

Renaissance,

the

later

poems

incorporate

Platonic

theories

in their

argument.

And

again,

while the

works

of his

middle

vears

reveal

their debt

to

Plato

in more,

and

more

specific,

passages, the latest works are more steadily and intrinsically Pla-

tonic

in

their

theoretical

basis.

While

we cannot

precisely

date

Milton's first

reading

in the

Dialogues nor

define

its course

and effect,

something can

be said

about the

reason for

the change

we find

from the

early

references

to those of

his

middle years.

A

letter

to

Diodati,

written from

London on

September

23, 1637,

contains

Milton's earliest

'schol-

arly'

citation of

Plato:

Though

I

know

not God's

intent

toward me in

other

respects, yet of

this

I

am

sure,

that

he

has

imbued me

especially

with a

mighty

passion for

Beauty. [8ecv&6uot

apwvra,

e('rep

71

dXXCp

0V

icaXoi E'vaorae.] 10 Ceres never

sought her

daughter

Prosperine (as the

legend tells)

with

greater

ardour

than

I

do

this

Idea of

Beauty [roV KaXOI

8iaV]

1L

like

some image

of loveli-

ness;

ever

pursuing it,

by day

and by night, in

every

shape

and form

(

for

many forms

there are of

thinigs

divine ), and

following close

in

its

footprints

as

it

leads. '

And

so,

whensoever I find

one who

spurns the

base opinions

of common

men,18

and

dares

to be, in

thought and

word and

deed, that which

the

wisest

minds

throughout the

ages

have

approved;

whensoever, I

say,

I

find such a

maii, to

him I

find myself

impelled

forthwith to

cleave....

14

What am I

thinking

about?

you ask.

So help me

God, of

immortality.15

What am I

doing?

Growing

wings

[7rTepoov(Z]

and

learning to

fly;

16

but my Pegasus can only rise on tender pinions as yet, so let my new

wisdom be

humble.17

'I

Cf.

Phaedrus

249

d-e.

2'

Plato

does

not

use

this

termn,

but it is

an

obviously

Platonic

substitute

for

those he

does use

in

Phaedrus

to

express

the

concept.

12

Cf.

Phaedrus 250

a-c.

13

Cf.

ibid.

249

c-d.

14

Cf.

ibid. 251

b- 252

c,

256

d.

5 Cf.

ibid. 245

ff.

16

Cf.

ibid.

249

d-e,

251

b-

252

c,

256 d.

17

Trans. by Phyllis B. Tillyard, Milton: Private Correspondence and

Academic

Exercises

(Cambridge,

1932), p.

14.

The

insertions are

from

the

text of Milton's

letter,

C.

E.,

XII,

26.


6/16

54 Milton's

References

to

Plato and

Socrates

Phaedrw

is

not

named;

Diodati

is

expected

to

place

the

quota-

tion.

Evidently

Milton

had

known

an Italian

Platonist

before

ever

he

entered

an

accademia.

But this

is

somehow

different

from

such

use

of

roi

xaAoi

i&e'ov

s

Ficino

or Pico

della Mirandola

or

Bembo

had

popularized.

Here

is no

mistress

praised

as the

very

incarnation

of that

glorious

idea,

but

a friend

told

that

he, but

not

he alone,

is

loved

because

this

'Idea

of Beauty'

leaves

its print

on

many

shapes

and

forms,

and

especially

on

the spirit

of an

uncom-

monly good man. The friend is even told his use: by his aid the

soul

grows

its

wings,

and to

its own

end-immortality,

that

it

may

bave

vision

of the

very

'image

of loveliness

' and

fly its

Pegasus,

if

it be

a poet's

soul,

to the

rim

of

heaven

itself-hereafter.

For

the

present

the pinions

are

but

growing;

the

flight

must

not

yet-

be,

we gather,

unaided.

We

have

in

this

letter

to

Diodati

the

authentic

note

of

ardent

Platonism.

But

was it

Milton's

first

sounding

of that

note?

In

Comus,

written some

three years

earlier,

there

occurred

a

passage

of similar

quotation

and paraphrase

from Plato. 8

And

surely

much in Comus may be traced directly or indirectly to the Dia-

logues,

and

much is

ardent.

But

is it exactly

Platonic?

We

must

reserve

for

another

time

a

discussion

of the

Platonism of

Comus,

but

may

here suggest

a way

of putting

the question:

Is

the

con-

versation of

the

mask

such a

dialogue

as

Plato might

have

written

on

the

subject?

Is the saintly

Lady

in her

awesome

self-righteous-

ness

a second

Diotima

versed

in the deep mysteries

of

Love?

No more than

Comus

with

his

bestiality

resembles

the Aristophanes

of

Plato's

creation.

The

theories

of the mask,

like its

men

and

women, are such as the Platonic Spenser loved to present, but not

Plato.

The

'divine

Philosophy'

of

Plato

had

begun

to

'charm'

Milton

long

before;

it had

not

yet

pervaded

his

thought.

Doubtless

the

youthful

writer

of Comus

did not

set himself

to

expound

Plato's

doctrines,

but,

like poets

from

Homer

to

Kipling,

simply

used

what

in

doctrine,

as in

image,

legend,

myth,

he

found

to

his

purpose.

A

great

deal of what

he found useful

came

origi-

nally

from

Plato,

some of

it

directly;

but

genuine

Platonism

like

the

words

to Diodati

we can

scarcely

call

it. The

Platonism

of

Comw

is

still

largely

conventional

because

the author,

though

I'

Lines

470-5

of

Comut

are

adapted

from

Phaedo

81.

There

are,

of

course,

many

other

reminiscences

of

the

Dialogues

in

the

mask.


7/16

Irene Samuel

55

familiar

with the

Dialogues

and

even

partially

under their

sway,

was not

immediately concerned with

Plato. What the

letter

to

Diodati

reveals

is

not, then,

in

all

probability,

a

new

acquaintance

with

any dialogue,

but a

new

grasp

of the

relevanee

of Plato's

thought

to

Milton's own

life.

Milton

himself twice stated

that his mature reading

in

Plato

had greatly influenced

him. From these two

passages we

learn

explicitly what we have

inferred from the letter to Diodati.

Some

time before publishing his youthful Elegies in 1645, Milton

appended to them

19

a

postscript:

Haec

ego meiite

olini

laeva, studioque supino,

Nequitiae posui

vana

trophaea meae.

Scilicet abreptum sic me

malus impulit error,

Indocilisque aetas prava magistra

fuit;

Donec

Socraticos

umbrosa

Academis rivos

Praebuit, admissum

dedocuitque iugum.

Protinus, extinctis ex illo

tempore flammis

Cincta

rigent

muilto

pectora

nostra

gelu;

Uiide suis

frigus

metuit puer ipse

sagittis,

Et Diomedeam vim timet ipse Venus.20

The

lines,

somewhat like a

recantation,

have an

evident purpose.

At a definite time in

Milton's

life, we are to understand,

Plato

with his Socratic

teaching

profoundly altered the

thoughts and

feelings of

the

poet.

Once he

hadl been

content to write

in an

amorous

vein very like,

we

note, that

of conventional

Platonism;

then

upon reading,

or rather

rereading, Plato, he discovered

that

the

doctrine

of

love there

taught was

of

grave

significance, not

only

in

itself,

but

for

him.

If

this

doctrine were

simply the arm-

ing of the heart against Cupid's shafts, we might suppose that the

experience

had

preceded

and

prompted

the writing of Comus,

where

we

could

find

fully expressed the new

understanding.

But the

Apology for Smectymnuus

records

the event more

completely:

19

Or

to the

last of

them.

20

'

These

vain

trophies

of

my

idleness

I

once

set

up

in

foolish

mood

and

with

supine

endeavor.

Injurious

error,

forsooth,

led

me

astray, and untu-

tored youth

was

a

bad

teacher;

until

the

shady

Academy

offered its

Socratic

streams, and

freed me from

the

yoke

to

which

I

had

submitted.

At once

these flames were

extinguished,

and thenceforth

my

breast

has

been

stiff

with en6ircling ice, whence Cupid has feared a frost for his arrows, and

Venus fears

my

Diomedean

strength.'

The

text

and translation

are

taken

from

Mac

Kellar's edition of

Milton's

Latin

Poems.


8/16

56 Milton's References to Plato and Socrates

Thus,

from

the

laureate

fraternity

of

poets, riper years

and the

ceaseless

round of study

and

reading led me

to

the shady spaces

of

philosophy;

but

chiefly

to

the divine

volumites

of Plato and

his equal Xenophon: where,

if I should tell you what

I

learnt

of

chastity

and

love,

I mean

that which

is

truly so, whose charming

cup is only virtue,

which

she

bears

in

her

hand

to those who are worthy; (the rest are cheated with

a

thick intoxicating

potion,

which a

certain

sorceress,

the

abuser of

love's name, carries about;)

and how the first and chiefest office of

love

begins and ends in the soul,

producing those happy twins of her divine generation, knowledge and

virtue. With such abstracted sublimities as these, it might be worth

your listening, readers, as I may one day hope to have ye in a still time,

when there

shall

be no chiding.21

Since Milton

wrote

this

passage years

after Comm

had

been per-

formed, clearly he himself did not feel that his mask told what he

had learned about chastity and love from the Dialogues. Far from

it. Those 'divine volumes' have supplied him with matter for

work yet unborn. And now, be it noted, the epithet 'divine' is

no longer merely conventional, but granted by a disciple to the

'abstracted

sublimities' into

which

he has himself

been

initiated.

For this is the language of an initiate, of one for whom the heart

of

an

ethical doctrine has come alive. Knowing that Milton had

never

since

his

student days been unacquainted with Platonism,

we

recognize this experience of

his

'riper years'

as the

winning of

a

new

insight. The letter to Diodati,

the

postscript

to

the Elegies,

the

words in

the Apology,

all bear

the

mark

of emotion,

the

two

in

prose, a strong emotion as

well

as clear understanding; they

suggest,

as it

were,

a

philosophical

conversion.

But we

need

not dwell

on

the

emotional

phase

of

Milton's

Pla-

tonism.

The

bare references

of

his

middle

years

alone warrant

our

finding in the Dialogues a major source of his theories on all the

many problems

of

human

life

witlh

which

he then

was

dealing.

Thenceforth,

at

any rate,

the

authority

of

Plato

assumed

ever-

increasing importance.

In the

letter

to

Diodati,

Milton had

quoted

from Phaedrus

without

giving

his

source;

a

year

later

he

was

more

explicit.

He

wrote

to

Buommattei:

It is

Plato's

opinion

that

an

alteration in

the

style

and

fashion

of

dress

portends grave

disorders and

changes

in the State.22

That

is Plato's

opinion

in the Laws; 23 the illustration of clothes

21

C.

E.,

III,

305.

22

Trans.

by

Tillyard,

p.

16.

23 See

Laws,

VII,

797.


9/16

Irene

Samuel

57

is

given

only

once,

but

in

connection

with

a doctrine basic

to

the

Laws as

a

whole,

that

unnecessary

and

careless

change,

like

all

instability,

is at

once

cause

and

sign

of

decadence.

Milton,

though

it may

seem

strange

for one

who

was

to advocate divorce

and

regi-

cide,

accepted the

principle,

reapplying

it here

to

language

as

earn-

estly as Plato

had

applied

it to dress. Indeed it became

for

Milton

a constant

principle,

too little observed

by

readers of

his

tracts

on

religion,

politics, and

marriage, who

naturally

are

more

struck

by

its more striking corollary, that needed and deliberate corrections

of

evil

signify

and

produce

vitality.

Milton's

political

writings

make

frequent

use

of

various

Pla-

tonic

theories. For

example,

The Reason

of

Church-Government

opens

with the

words:

In the

publishing

of

human

laws,

which for the

most

part

aim

not

beyond

the good

of civil

society, to

set them

barely

forth

to

the

people

without

reason

or

preface, like

a

physical

prescript,

or

only

with

threaten-

ings,

as

it

were a

lordly

command,

in

the

judgment of

Plato

was thought

to

be

doneneither

generously

or wisely.24

The advice of Plato is then explained in detail and moreover con-

firmed

by

the

practice of

Moses.

A little

later

in the

Preface,

Plato

is

called

'the wisest

of the

heathen;

'

25

and

throughout the

tract

Milton

consistently

applies to

the

problems of

church-governtment

the wise

doctrine

he

had

found

repeatedly

expressed and

applied

in

Plato's Laws:

persuasion

educates;

coercion

merely

restrains.

Milton's

interest

at

the time

in

political theory

would naturally

lead

him

to

careful

study of

the two

great

political

theorists

of

antiquity.

Plato,

however,

unlike

Aristotle,

had

presented

his

politics

as

an

integrated

part not

only

of his

ethical, but of his

entire

body of

thought.

Inevitably

Milton

would

consider

works

other

than

the

Republic

and

Laws in

order to

grasp the

full

mean-

ing

of

Plato's

doctrines on

the

state.

Thus we

find in

the

Reason

of

Church-Government

allusions

to other

Platonic

dialogues,

not

primarily

political.

'I read,'

says

Milton,

of

no

sophister

among the

Greeks that

was so

dear,

neither

Hippias nor

Protagoras, nor

any whom

the

Socratic

school

famously

refuted

without

hire.26

24

Preface

to

Church-Gov.,C.

E.,

III,

181.

25

C. E., III, 182.

E6

C.

.,

III,

202;

and

see

the

table

for

other

references

in

The

Reason

of

Church-Government.


10/16

58 Milton's References to Plato and Socrates

Milton's very use of the term 'Sophist'-and he uses it with

growing frequency and scorn in his controversial

writings-appar-

ently comes from his reading in the Dialogues, though the word

was surely in his time, as now, a commonplace. At any rate, in his

Apology for Smectymnuus, he again associates refutation of sophis-

try with the Socratic method,27 and elsewhere repeats Plato's

objection that those who deal in truth for hire cannot be true

teachers.2

From the Apology for Smectymnuus we further learn that Mil-

ton did not

always feel the aversion to 'Atlantic and Utopian poli-

ties

'

that he later expressed in Areopagitica. Here he praises

that grave and noble

invention which the

greatest

and

sublimest

wits in

sundry ages,

Plato in

Critias,

and our own two

famous

countrymen,

the

one

in his

Utopia,

the

other

in

his

New

Atlantis

chose,

I

may

not

say

as

a

field, but as

a

mighty

Continent

wherein

to

display

the

largeness

of

their

spirits by teaching

this

our world better

and exacter

things

than

were yet known, or

used.'6

Areopagitica

is

the

one

work

in which

Milton ever

disparaged any

writing of Plato; and even there Plato remains ' a man of high

authority indeed,' though

'least of all

in

his

Commonwealth,

n the

book of his

laws.'

'I

Since Milton

often used the

authority

of

that

very book to support

his

own arguments,

we

may suppose

that not

the Laws

in its entirety,

but

only its

advocation of

censorship

roused

his

dissent;

and

surely many another

Platonist has found it as

hard

to reconcile

himself

to

some of the

legal

constraints Plato

seemingly urged.

But

Milton,

be

it

noted,

ends his

discussion

of

the

censorship

in the

Laws

by commending

in its

place

another

principle from the same work:

Nor is

it Plato's licensing of books will do this [i. e., mend our

condi-

tion],

which

necessarily pulls along with it

so

many other kinds

of

licensing; .

.

. but those unwritten, or at least unconstraining laws of

virtuous education, religious and civil nurture, which Plato there men-

tions, as

the

bonds

and

ligaments

of

the commonwealth, the pillars

and the

sustainers

of

every

written

statute;

these

they be,

which

will bear

chief

sway

in

such

matters as

these.31

Plato

naturally

has a

large part

in

the treatise Of Education,

not

only among

the books to be

given

to

students,

but

in

the

theory

27

C.

E.)

III,

293-4.

2R

See,

for

example,

Pro

Se

Defensio,

C.

E., IX,

284-6.

24

C.

E., III,

294.

'0

C.

E., IV, 316.

a1

C.

E.,

IV,

318.


11/16

Irene Samuel 59

and plan

of instruction

there set

forth.

And later

works show

how

large a part

the

Dialogues

had

in

Milton's own

self-education.

Tetrachordon

cites Plato

three

times;

the first

D'efensio

repeatedly

turns to the

Laws

and

Eighth Fpistle

for confirmation of its

politi-

cal

theorv;

and

in

the

Defensio,

nine

years

after the

Apology for

Smectymnuus,

Mlilton reasserts

his

old

judgment by

naming

Plato

among the 'best and wisest men of old' and

calling

him

once

more

'divine.'32

The Dialogues, once carefully studied, kept their hold upon

Milton.

Others have

noted

with what relative

lightness

Plato

escapes

Jesus' attack

on classical

learning

in

Paradise

Regained.

We need only add that Milton's

words

are

not

a

very serious

accu-

sation for

a

poet

to make

of

a

philosopher:

if

Plato 'fell' to 'fab-

ling

and

smooth conceits,' his fall

was

from

philosophy to poetry.

And

Milton

did

indeed think Plato poetical,

recognizing

in

him

the

'grave

and noble'

facultv

of

invention.

He

thought

Plato

a

master

of comic invention

too,33

a

master of educational theory,34

a

model

of

literary

decorum,35

an

expert in law;

38

in

short he did

most

seriously

accord

to

Plato a position

far above

any other

author,

pagan or Christian, save the authors

of Holy Scripture. Never to

Augustine,

his

favorite amolng Church-Fathers, to

Spenser, his

favorite among English

poets, to

Cicero, Erasmus, or Bacon, did

he

apply the epithet

he granted to Plato. And far

from merely

adopting a

conventional term of praise,37 Milton

showed that he

independently approved the common

judgment,

explaining that

Plato 'for those his writings hath

obtain'd the surname of Divine.'

38

We

see that

Milton

was

well

equipped by study to confirm

and

explain the ancient judgment. Note in the table of references how

often he

alludes

to

a

specific passage in Plato; note from

how wide

a

range

in

the

Dialogues

and

Epistles his allusions are

drawn, and

with

what precision

he refers to the

Laws and Epistles, the least

generally read of

Plato's works. If the references he

took from

sa

C.

E.,

VII,

350.

See

Ap.

Smect.,

C.

E.,

III,

293-4;

Tetrach.,

C.

E.,

IVy

76.

O4

f

Ed.,

C. E.,

IV,

287.

36

See

Pro

Se

Def.,

C.

E.,

IX,

176.

I

See

D.

D.

D.,

C.

E.,

III,

458.

37

At

least

as

early as

Athenaeus

he

was

6

OEcoLraros

lXarwv.

See

Deipnosophists,

x, 440b.

38

Ap.

Smect.,

C.

E.,

III,

293-4.


12/16

60

Milton's

References to Plato

anrd Socrates

Downham's

commentary on

Rlamus should not be counted as

Mil-

ton's own, the

choice at

least

is his,

since he omitted innumerable

others

in

condensing

Downham's work.

And two

changes

he made

in

Downham's

citations are

clear proof

that

what he took

unchanged,

he

took with full

knowledge

of the

works

alluded to.

Once, where

Downham

had

omitted the

specific

source, Milton

supplied

Phae-

drus;

'

and

again,

to

Downham's

illustrative

phrase, 'philosophus

pro

Aristotle,' Milton

significantly

added 'aut

Platone.' 40

From the two amendments we may learn, first, Milton's ability

independently to

supply the

precise

dialogue of

Plato when his

source failed

to name

it,

and

further

his

unwillingness

to

have

the

term

'the

philosopher'

stand, even

in

one short

phrase,

for

any

other

alone

without

mention of Plato.

Briefly,

both amendments

confirm

Milton's

thorough

knowledge of and enthusiastic admira-

tion for

Plato's work.

What

that

knowledge

and enthusiasm meant

in his own

thought and

writing we have

as

yet hardly

begun

to

probe. For

put

Paradise

Lost and Paradise

Regained

to the same

test

as

we

put Comus

earlier,

and

we

get

a

startlingly

different

result. Suppose Plato dealing with the loss of human happiness,

would he

give the same

explanation as

Milton in

the

tale of man's

fall?

On the

whole,

we may

say yes.

True,

he would

conceive

of

no

such perfect

providence

watching-and

waiting to relieve-

mankind's errors.

And

Plato, to be

sure,

never tarried

so

long

in

Hell

as Milton.

Doubtless the

Hebraic view

of life

brings to

its

disciples greater

struggles as

well

as greater

aspirations

than

Hlel-

lenism

at its best.

But

if

we

look

aside from

Hell and

Heaven to

Earth,

where

Milton after all

wished

us to

fix

our

gaze

most

steadily,

and discern in the struggle there ensuing the meaning as Milton

discerned it, we

can

see

that, however

little the

words and

acts

resemble

those of

a Platonic

dialogue,

the

underlying

argument is

largely

Plato's. And

when we

turn to

Paradise

Regained,

where a

bolder

Sophist than any

opponent

of

Socrates defies

a more

glorious

seeker

after

truth,

even if the

very

dialectical

method of

Jesus'

victory did

not

point to the

Dialogues as a

model, the

themes and

arguments

are, we

conceive,

very

nearly what

Plato would

have

written

had

he-as in

the

nature of

things he

could not

have-

treated

a

like

subject.

ao

See

in the

appended

table

the note

to the

reference

Logic, C.

E.,

XI,

*22.

4

See

the

note to

Logic,

C.

E., XI,

**334.


13/16

Irene

Samuel

61

We

can see

and

we

conceive-but

only

after careful

comparison

of Milton's

thought

with

Plato's;

and while the

reader awaits

that

comparison,

he may grant

the

need of

it from the

number

and

variety

of

Milton's references.

A

TABLE

OF MILTON'S

REFERENCES

TO

SOCRATES

AND

PLATO

Passage

Date

Source Quoted

S

Eleg.

4.

23-4

1627 ?t

Aloib., 103 ff.,

135

Agar 15

P

Idea Plat. 1628

passim; esp.

?Phaedo, Agar

16

or

later ?Phaedr.,

?Sym.,

?Rep.

P

Prolus.

2, C.

E.

12. 150

1625-9 ?Rep. 10. 616-7

Agar

76

Prolus.

6, C. E. 12

1625-9

S

*218

?Apol. 20-3

S

*238

passim

Prolus. 7, C. E. 12

1625-9

P

262-4

Agar 77

S

*280

passim

P

II Pen. 87-96

1631-4

?Tim.

41-2

Agar

5

1

The

symbols

used

in

the table

are as

follows:

S

and

P

indicate references

to

Socrates

and

Plato. Parentheses

are

used

to

distinguish

implicit

references,

as

in

the

letter to

Diodati,

where

Milton

quotes

Phaedrus, but

does not

name

his

source.

The

single

asterisk marks

a

reference

not

given

in

Agar's

Milton

and

Plato.

The

double

asterisk

marks a

reference given

neither

in

the Columbia

Index nor

by

Agar.

.0.

B.

with

Arabic

numbers

following

refers to the

Columbia

edition

of

The Works

of

John

Milton,

volume

and

page. The

numbers

in

parentheses

correspond to

Milton's own

divisions.

A question nmark before a title indicates uncertainty in assigning the

allusion

to

any specific

work

of

Plato.

The

number after

Agar

refers

to

the

passage in the

Appendix

of Agar's

volume where

the selection is

quoted.

The

page-number

after Downham

marks

the

place in

the

work of

George

Downham,

Rami

Dialecticae Libri

D1uo

cum Comm

entariis

(London,

1669),

which

is the

source of

Milton's

reference.

Milton,

of

course,

used an

earlier

edition

of

Downham's

commentary.

The list

does

not

include those

passages in

the

Logic where

Socrates is

named

merely

as

a

convenient

Everyman

of

argument.

2

The most

likely

source is

Diogenes

Laertius,

Life of

Socrates,

36-8.

See

also

Xenophon's

Banquet

2.

10.

Diogenes

Laertius seems

to take

the

statement of the oracle

from

Plato's

Apology

and

the

character

of

Xanthippe

from

Xenophon.


14/16

62

Milton's

References

to Plato

and

Socrates

Passage

Date Source

Quoted

[P]

To

Dio.,

C. E. 12. 26 1637 Phaedr.

Agar

72

P To Buom.,

C. E.

12. 32 1638 Laws 7. 797-8 Agar 73

P

Of Ref., C.

E. 3. 39 1641

?Rep., esp.

4.

420; Agar

53

?Laws, esp.

5. 739

S

*Animad.,

C. E. 3. 161 1641

(Xenophon)3

Church-Gov.,

C.

E. 3 1642

P *181-2 (Preface)

Laws 4. 718 ff.

S

*202

(1. 5) passim; esp. Protag., ?Hipp.

Jfin.

P 264 (2. 3) Soph. 230; '?Gorg.476ff. Agar 54

Ap. Smect.,

C. E. 3 1642

PS 293-4

passim

Agar

55

P

*294 Critias

P

305

passim;

esp.

Phaedr., Sym.

Agar 57

D. D.

D., C. E.

3. 1643

PS 398 (1.4)

Sym. 203

Agar 58

P

441 (2.3)

passim; esp. Thaws 1. 644-5;

WMenro

9-100

Agar

60

P

*458-9 (2.9)

Laws

4. 719

P

464 (2.11)

Protag. 354 e, 355-8; et al. Agar 61

Cf.

Memo 77-8,

Tim. 86

SP 500-1 (2.21) Gorg. 482-4, 488-510 Agar 62

Judg. Bucer,

C. E. 4 1644

P

*24 (17 on Matth. v. 19)

(Bucer)

5

?Rep.,

?Laws

Areop., C. E. 4. 1644

P

299

Agar

44

P 316

Rep., Laws

Agar 46

p

317

Rep. 3; Laws 2, 7 Agar

47

P 318

Rep. 4; Laws 1, 7 Agar

48

Of Ed., C. E. 4 1644

S

281

Agar 66

P

284

passim

Agar 67

P 286 passim; esp. Phaedr., Gorg. Agar 68

P

287

passim and Laws 1. 634-5 Agar 69

[PIS

Eleg. 7, Postscript before

passim; esp. Phaedr.,

Sym.

1645

Tetrach., C. E. 4 1645

s This is the sole reference to Socrates in which Milton uses

Xenophon

alone as the authority. See Xenophon, Apology, 26; Memorabilia I.

2.

1-8; I. 6.

11-3.

'

The first part of the reference comes from Diogenes Laertius, Life

of

Plato, 18; the second from Milton's own reading of the Dialogues.

'That

detractor in Athenaeus ' is probably Pontianus in Deipnosophists II. 504 b-

509

e.

IApparently taken from Martin Bucer, Of the Kingdom of

Christ,

Chap. 17.


15/16

Irene Samuel

63

Passage

Date

Source

Quoted

S *70

(To Parl.)

?Apol.

19

P

*76

(on

Gen. i.

27)

Sym.

189-93

P

81

(on

Gen.

i.

28)

Laws

6.

773-6,

783-5

Agar

63

P

*157-8 (on

Matth.

xix.

7-8) Rep.

Def.,

C.

E. 7.

1651

P 158 (3)

Rep.

5. 463.

Cf. Laws

4.

715

P

166-8 (3)

Laws

4.715; VIIIEpist.354

Agar

40

P 304-6 (5)

VIII Epist.

355

Agar

41

P

*348-50 (6)

VIII

Epist.

354-5

S Def. Sec., C. E. 8.192 1654 ?A.pol. 20-3

Pro Se Def.,

C. E. 9.

1655

S

*52

?Apol.

S[P]

*112

passim

PS *176

passim

p

*180-2

P P. L. 3. 471-3

before

Agar

18

1667

Grammar,C.

E. 6

1669

P

**329 (2. Of the

Con-

cords)

SP *1349 (2. of the Con-

junctions)

Logic, C. E.

11.

1670

Downham.

P

*10 (Preface)

Theaet.

202 e Proleg., p. 19

P

**12 (Preface)

Gorg.

448

Proleg.,

p. 22

P

*18-20 (1.1)

Crat., IAlcib.

129

c pp.

3-4

P

*22 (1. 2)

Phaedr.

235-6, 264

p. 15

5

PS *58

(1.

7)

passim

(and Diogenes

p. 79

Laertius)

P

*66

(1. 8)

Phil.

54

p.88

P

*96

(1.11)

Rep. 3. 405

7

p.122

S

[PI

*140-2

(1. 16)

Crito

44

p. 164

P *150 (1. 18) p. 177

Milton

gives

the source

as Phaedrus

where

Downham

had

simply said,

'Atque

hanc

distributionem

]Plato

videtur

primus

attigisse.'

7

Milton's

translator

in the

Columbia

edition, Allan H.

Gilbert, makes

a

serious

mistake

here. Quoting

Downham,

Milton

writes:

'Hoc

argu-

mento

Plato

miseras

civitates

auguratur,

quae

medicorum et

judicum

multitudine

indigeant,

quia

multum

quoque et

intemperantiam

et injusti-

tiam

in ea

civitate versari

necesse

est.' The

translation

given

is:

'

By

means of this

argument

Plato

conjectures that

those

states are

wretched

which lack a

multitude

of

physicians

and

judges, since

necessarily

much

intemperance and injustice will be practised in such a state. ' Clearly

Plato

says the

very opposite

in

the Republic

3. 405,

and

Milton's

'

multi-

tudine

indigeant' must mean

'are

poor

with their

multitude.'


16/16

64

Milton's

References to

Plato

and Socrates

Passage Date

Source

Quoted

S

*166 (1.18)

P *200 (1. 21) Laws

3,

Phaedo 92

p.209

S

204

(1.21)

p. 212

S *228

(1. 25)

(Aristotle) p. 242

P

*228-30 (1. 25)

?Phil.

16-8, pp.

243-4

?Statesm. 287

S

238 (1. 27)

passim

and Meno 72-7 pp.

249-50

P

*240

(1.27)

Statesm.

p.251

P

#286 (1.33)

Rep. 5. 473 p.290

P *308 (2.3) Crat. ?431 p.324

P ?*334 (2.4)

p.365

P

*470 (2.17)

Phil.

16 p.472

P 474 (2.17) ?Phaedr.,

?Statesm.

p.428

P **494 (Praxis)

?Tim.

p. 47

P.R.

1671

S

3.

96-9

passim; esp. ?Apol.

29-

Agar

35

31,

36-42; ?Crito,

?Phaedo

P 4. 244-7

Agar

37

S

[P]

*4. 272-8 ?Apol.

20-3

BP 4. 293-5 passim Agar 38

?On Worthy Master t

Shakespeare, C.

E. 18. 361

P **15-8

Tim.

39

@

Downham

had

written,

'ut Poeta

pro Homero aut Virgilio:

philoso-

phus pro Aristotele: orator pro Demosthene aut Cicerone.' Milton inserts

Plato as

one

for whom philosophus

may stand:

'ut

poets pro

Homero

aut Virgilio,

Philosophus

pro Aristotele

aut Platone et similia.'

Milton's References to Plato and Socrates

Documents